Blitzen Trapper takes fans on backwoods journey

Jed Gottlieb, MusicFriday, September 27, 2013

Credit: Unknown

Blitzen Trapper

Eric Earley doesn’t work harder or smarter. He just never stops working.

The Blitzen Trapper frontman and song­writer titled his band’s latest “VII.” The name serves as a simple testament that, a decade in, Blitzen Trapper has released seven albums (and two EPs). Typical pop sloths, your Maroon 5s and Trains, release about one disc every three years.

“I’ve written about 20 records worth of material,” Earley said ahead of the band’s Sunday show at Royale. “So, really, seven doesn’t seem that many to me.”

If the music were lousy, the output wouldn’t be impressive. But everything Blitzen has done tops “Hey, Soul Sister.”

“The South and Midwest have these rural musical traditions, but they’re so dense, crossed with so many roads,” Earley said. “Where I grew up was deeply rural, and I like to have that remoteness as an element in my music. But traveling, touring so much in the South and Midwest, you pick the tail ends of all these musical fads.

“There’s no regionalism any more,” he said. “What’s cool about that is that anyone can pick up musical ideas and run it through their own filter. What we get through our filter is just American rock.”

Blitzen may fill its music with bluegrass banjos and honking harmonicas against the twang of a steel guitar, but between old-timey sounds, the modern world creeps in. Earley often spits out lyrics with the cadence of a hip-hop MC. The band uses samples, scratches and urban beats to segue between songs.

“It’s mountain music mixed with beats and bits of old demos,” the singer said. “I try to make music that gives people a very specific feeling, that transports them to the place where I made it. It’s music that’s from its own world.

“It’s probably why the rec­ords don’t sell very well,” he said, then added a raspy laugh.

Blitzen doesn’t chart blockbuster sales, but the band’s following is everywhere. The group can play anywhere in the country and attract 500 fans. And the cult will stay devoted as long as Blitzen keeps pumping out music.